Welfare ‘reform’ plans aimed at privatising ‘help’ for the long term unemployed drew an angry response from civil servants’ union PCS yesterday.
Union leader Mark Serwotka branded it a ‘slap in the face for the tens of thousands of hardworking Jobcentre staff who have delivered the New Deal and the lowest unemployment in a generation’.
Coming against a backdrop of 30,000 job cuts and wholesale office closures in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the PCS warned of a desire by government to get services on the cheap and questioned whether the expertise and capacity existed in the private and voluntary sector to deliver.
The union also questioned the principle of introducing the profit motive into getting people back into work.
The PCS maintained that as ‘providers sought to hit performance indicators, people would be quickly churned through’ and placed in jobs which may not necessarily be sustainable in the long term.
The report comes as the union is campaigning against job cuts, privatisation and below inflation pay across the civil service.
The national civil service wide campaign has so far seen massive support for a one day civil service wide strike on 31 January which was followed by a two week civil service wide overtime ban hitting the yearly blitz by magistrates courts to recoup unpaid fines across England and Wales.
Serwotka, PCS general secretary, added: ‘Coming against a backdrop of massive job cuts and office closures, these plans will further fuel the anger and uncertainty amongst staff, prompting the possibility of further industrial action.
‘You have to question whether it is right to introduce the profit motive in getting people back to work.
‘There is a real danger that as providers seek to hit performance indicators, people will be quickly churned through and placed in jobs which may not necessarily be sustainable in the long term.
‘Privatising key parts of Jobcentre plus will result in a loss of specialist expertise, knowledge and skills.’
Meanwhile, the GMB trade union yesterday called on the government to step in and get to grips with the crisis of equal pay in local government.
Councils throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are withholding some £3-5 billion in compensation owed to their low paid women workers primarily care workers, cooks, cleaners and support staff in schools.
There is also £1 billion to go on the paybill to bring these women into line with their male counterparts. Some estimates put these amounts as equivalent to £250 on every council tax bill.
Attempts to negotiate fair and affordable ways of closing the equal pay gap in councils should have been completed by April 2007 but the vast majority have made little or no progress.
Brian Strutton, GMB National Secretary, said ‘It is a disgrace that in modern Britain women are having huge sums owed to them being withheld.’